Electricity 


the 


Burden  Bearer 


Edison’s  Laboratory  and  First  Central  Station  (See  page  13) 
A winter  scene  at  Menlo  Park,  N,  J.,  early  in  1881. 


Electricity  the 
Burden  Bearer 


By 

William  E.  Keily 

Assoc.  A.  I.  E.  E.  M.  W.  S.  E. 

Class  B Member  N.  E.  L.  A. 
Member  A.  A.  A.  S. 


Chicago 

Illinois  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information 

1920 


Copyright,  1920, 

By  Illinois  Committee  on  Public  Utility  Information 


G&I3 
K,<ZLb  6 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


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>T  WAS  only  during  the  nineteenth  century  that  elec- 
tricity was  really  put  to  work,  and,  indeed,  only 
in  the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century  that  it  was 
put  hard  at  work.  The  word  “electricity”  itself 
was  not  coined  until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  But  magnets,  first  observed  as  natural  magnets,  or 
lodestones,  had  been  known  from  antiquity;  and  magnetism 
(although  the  word  was  not  then  invented)  was  put  to  work  in 
the  twelfth  century  in  Europe — perhaps  earlier  by  the  Chinese — 
the  mariner’s  compass  making  possible,  three  hundred  years 
later,  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  by  Columbus.  Magnetic 
and  electrical  phenomena  are  closely  allied,  but  the  exact  study 
of  their  relationships  is  only  one  hundred  years  old. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton,  that  bright  ornament  of  British  science, 
compared  himself  to  a boy  playing  on  the  seashore,  diverting 
himself  now  and  then  in  finding  a pebble  or  shell  smoother  and 
prettier  than  ordinary,  while  the  great  ocean  of  truth  lay  all 
undiscovered  before  him.  The  modesty  of  true  greatness ! 

With  this  distinguished  example,  we  may  devise  a little  alle- 
gory. We  may  suppose  that  at  the  time  this  boy  was  busy  with 
his  pebbles,  say  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  a curious  jar 
lay  partly  embedded  on  the  beach  of  the  Ocean  of  Knowledge. 
It  had  been  there  for  all  the  ages  and  had  recently  become 
known  as  Electricit}^  All  the  boys,  including  Isaac,  had  exam- 
ined it  with  interest,  but  the  leader  wandered  off  to  such  toys  as 
the  Ether,  Gravitation,  Optics  and  Mathematics.  But  the  jar, 
while  not  indeed  “the  only  pebble  on  the  beach,”  was  the 
source  of  strange  sights  and  sounds,  and,  as  the  years  went  by, 
other  boys,  in  constantly  increasing  number,  pressed  around  it, 
eager  to  discover  its  secret.  For  a long  time  a mist  or  smoke  had 


6 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


been  observed  to  come  from  the  mouth  of  the  jar,  and  as  the 
strange  object  was  rubbed  and  pushed  and  kicked  and  sounded 
by  lads  from  many  lands  (for  all  nations  border  on  the  Ocean 
of  Knowledge,  and  here  is  truly  freedom  of  the  seas)  the  mist 
gradually  assumed  form.  Not  suddenly,  as  in  the  Arabian  tale, 
but  gradually,  the  smoke  took  the  form  of  the  Genius  of  Elec- 


Copyriglit  Detroit  Publishing  Co. 

Franklin’s  Kite  Experiment  of  1752 

The  picture  shows  Benjamin  Franklin  demonstrating,  with  the  help  of  his  son, 
that  lightning  is  an  electrical  phenomenon. 

tricity — a giant  indeed.  Now  hugely  delighted,  the  boys,  grand- 
sons of  the  grandsons  of  other  inquisitive  boys,  danced  about  and 
commanded  this  prodigy  to  do  their  bidding.  And,  because 
they,  succeeding  their  forbears,  had  earned  the  right,  by  long- 
continued  and  increasingly  intelligent  effort,  to  direct  the  Force 
they  had  released,  Electricity  obeyed.  At  first  the  new  servant 
was  employed  to  carry  messages,  but  later  he  was  put  at  other 
work,  until  now  he  is  fast  becoming  the  dextrous  agent  by 
which  power  is  applied  to  carry  all  the  burdens  of  the  world. 


ELEGTKIOITY  TUB  BURDEN  BEARER 


7 


Such  a comparative  newcomer  is  this  Electricity-at-Work  that 
we  often  ask  “What  is  electricity?”  We  might  as  well  ask, 
“What  is  light?”  or  “What  is  heat?”  or  “What  is  gravity?” 
Are  we  sure  that  we  can  answer  these  questions?  Electricity  is 
a form  of  energy  which  has  become  a commonplace  of  our  every- 
day surroundings  but  as  of  yesterday.  The  power  that  makes 
an  apple  fall  in  an  orchard  is  really  as  mysterious  as  the  power 
that  causes  the  turning  of  the  armature  of  an  electric  motor. 
But  the  boys  around  the  old  jar — all  honor  to  them! — are  still 
at  their  delightful  work  of  investigating  and  speculating.  Many 
of  them  have  an  idea  nowadays,  expressed  in  the  so-called  elec- 
tron theory,  that  the  atoms  of  all  bodies  are  composed  of  still 
more  minute  particles  which  are  negative  corpuscles  or  charges 
of  electricity  associated,  in  the  atom,  with  a positively  electrified 
nucleus.  Thus  it  has  been  conjectured  that  the  whole  universe 
is  one  vast  electrical  organism.  But  the  electron  theory  is  very 
complex,  and  not  altogether  susceptible  of  demonstration,  and 
the  truth  is  that  no  man  can  answer  the  question  “What  is  elec- 
tricity?” with  any  degree  of  certainty.  But  we  can  say  some- 
thing about  what  is  done  by  means  of  electricity,  and  an  attempt 
to  do  this,  very  briefly  and  with  particular  reference  to  the 
United  States,  is  made  in  this  pamphlet. 

Pathfinders  of  Electrical  Science 

Fascinating  as  the  story  is,  only  the  briefest  reference  can 
be  made  to  the  “high  spots”  of  the  history  of  electricity.  Dr. 
William  Gilbert,  an  English  physician  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  time, 
is  usually  considered  the  founder  of  electrical  science,  although 
the  “science”  was  very  nebulous  indeed  for  a century  and  a 
half  after  1600,  the  year  when  Gilbert’s  great  book,  De  Magnet e. 
was  published.  Following  him  came  a long  line  of  experi- 
menters in  many  nations,  including  Robert  Boyle,  Otto  von 
Guericke,  Stephen  Gray  and  our  own  Benjamin  Franklin,  who 
demonstrated  by  his  famous  kite  experiment  in  1752  that  light- 
ning is  an  electrical  phenomenon. 

Galvani  is  given  the  credit  of  being  the  first  man  to  detect 
a current  of  electricity.  Hitherto  the  only  electricity  known  had 


8 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


been  developed  by  friction.  The  date  of  Galvani’s  discovery 
was  some  time  between  1786  and  1790.  Volta,  another  Italian 
scientist,  developed  the  first  electric  battery  in  1800,  and  now 
the  century  which  was  to  witness  the  great  practical  use  of 
electricity  was  at  hand.  Sir  Humphry  Davy  discovered  the  arc 
light  and,  using  voltaic  batteries,  exhibited  it  on  a grand  scale 
before  the  Royal  Institution  of  London  in  1809.  But  it  was 
seventy  years  after  that  before  electric  lighting  came  into  gen- 
eral use,  principally  because  there  was  no  cheap  way  of  produc- 
ing electricity. 

H.  C.  Oersted  of  Copenhagen  announced  the  discovery  of  the 
magnetic  effect  of  the  electric  current  in  1820,  and  this  was  an 
important  discovery  because  it  opened  the  doors  for  the  later 
development  of  electrical  machinery,  based  on  the  great  work  of 
Michael  Faraday  of  England,  Davy’s  pupil,  who  discovered  in 
1831  the  basic  principles  on  which  dynamo-electric  machines  are 
designed.  He  also  announced  the  principle  of  induction,  on 
which  the  modern  transformer  is  based.  About  this  time  Joseph 
Henry,  the  famous  American  physicist,  was  also  conducting  his 
valuable  experiments  with  electromagnets  and  induced  currents. 
Many  other  scholars  and  inventors  made  important  contribu- 
tions to  the  science  of  electricity  in  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century.  Among  them  were  C.  A.  Coulomb,  G.  S.  Ohm,  K.  F. 
Gauss,  W.  E.  Weber,  A.  M.  Ampere,  A.  C.  Becquerel  and  others. 
Later  the  torch  of  electrical  science  passed  to  other  worthy 
hands,  including  those  of  such  men  as  J.  P.  Joule,  Clerk  Max- 
well, Lord  Kelvin,  H.  A.  Rowland,  H.  Hertz,  C.  P.  Steinmetz 
and  many  others. 

“What  Hath  God  Wrought?” 

The  principles  elucidated  by  the  scientists  have  received  prac- 
tical application  at  the  hands  of  a host  of  inventors  (although 
it  is  impossible  to  make  a sharp  line  of  demarcation  between 
scientists  and  inventors).  The  telegraph  was  the  first  great 
electrical  invention,  although  the  humbler  art  of  electroplating 
was  practically  contemporaneous  with  it.  Like  nearly  all  in- 
ventions, the  telegraph  resulted  from  the  work  of  many  men,  like 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


9 


Henry  in  the  United  States,  Cooke  and  Wheatstone  in  England 
and  Gauss  and  Weber  in  Germany.  But  Amerieans  give  the 
credit  for  the  invention  of  a practicable  working  telegraph  to 
S.  F.  B.  Morse,  who  began  his  experiments  in  1832,  exhibited 
a recording  telegraph  instrument  in  1837  and  sent  the  historic 
message,  “What  hath  God  wrought1?”  between  Washington  and 
Baltimore  in  1844.  At  this  time  voltaic  batteries  were  the  only 
available  source  of  electricity,  and  so,  until  well  along  in  the 
seventies,  the  telegraph  and  electroplating  were  the  only  elec- 
trical applications  in  general  use.  To  a considerable  extent  men 
like  Edison  who  obtained  their  first  practical  electrical  training 
in  telegraphy  were  the  pioneers  in  later  electrical  advancement. 
In  1858  the  first  messages  were  sent  under  the  Atlantic  by  sub- 
marine cable.  This  cable  became  inoperative,  but  finally  in  1866 
a new  cable  was  laid,  and  since  that  time  many  cables  have  been 
laid  in  the  Atlantic,  Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans,  connecting  all 
the  populous  parts  of  the  globe. 

Enter  the  Dynamo  and  the  Motor 

The  invention  of  the  dynamo-electric  machine,  by  which  the 
mechanical  energy  of  a steam  engine,  waterwheel,  etc.,  may  be 
converted  into  electrical  energy,  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
tremendous  electrical  development  of  the  last  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  because  it  furnished  cheap  electricity.  Many 
men  had  a hand  in  the  invention  of  the  dynamo.  Pixii,  Paci- 
notti,  the  Siemens  brothers  (William  and  Werner),  W7ilde, 
Gramme,  Brush,  Edison,  Hopkinson,  Elilni  Thomson,  Edward 
Weston  and  William  Stanley  may  be  mentioned,  although  other 
inventors  made  important  contributions  to  the  art.  Dynamos, 
in  something  resembling  their  modern  form,  made  their  appear- 
ance between  1867  and  1873.  They  gave  a great  impetus  to  the 
study  of  the  possibilities  of  electric  lighting,  a subject  that  had 
been  talked  about  ever  since  Davy’s  historic  experiment.  In 
fact,  electric-lighting  experiments  had  been  constantly  going 
on  in  various  countries.  Sir  W.  R.  Grove  of  England  recorded 
reading  by  an  incandescent  platinum  spiral  as  early  as  1840,  and 
in  1859,  Moses  G.  Farmer,  a Yankee  inventive  genius  who  was 


10 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


about  a quarter  of  a century  ahead  of  his  time,  lighted  his  house 
in  Salem,  Mass.,  by  crude  incandescent  lamps,  using  platinum 
wire  as  the  light-giving  body. 

The  modern  electric  motor  is  said  to  date  from  1873,  when  it 
was  found,  at  the  Vienna  Industrial  Exhibition  of  that  year, 
that  a Gramme  dynamo  could  be  reversed  in  operation  and  made 
to  serve  as  a motor.  The  first  storage  battery  of  importance  was 
made  by  Gaston  Plante  in  1860,  but  a very  important  develop- 
ment was  that  of  Camille  A.  Faure  in  1880.  Brush  and  Edison 
of  the  United  States  have  made  many  improvements  in  the  stor- 
age battery.  The  first  electric  boat  was  devised  and  operated  by 
Jacobi  on  the  River  Neva  at  Petrograd  in  1839.  The  ingenius 
but  crude  electric  motor  employed  was  operated  by  electrical 
energy  from  primary  batteries,  and  the  boat,  which  was  operated 
at  a speed  of  three  miles  an  hour,  was  mainly  interesting  as  an 
experiment.  It  was  fifty  years  later,  following  the  invention  of 
the  storage  battery  and  of  a practicable  electric  motor,  before 
electric  launches  came  into  use.  The  submarine  torpedo  boat, 
which  is,  when  submerged,  an  electric  boat,  is  the  result  of  the 
work  of  many  experimenters,  including  Lake  and  Holland  in 
the  United  States.  The  Zede  of  the  French  Navy  was  built  in 
1893. 


Rise  and  Decline  of  Arc  Lighting 

In  the  United  States  the  practical  electrical  development  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  followed  three  main  lines. 
As  might  perhaps  be  expected,  arc  lighting  was  the  first  of  these. 
The  Jablochkoff  candles,  which  were  arc  lamps  of  a peculiar 
design,  created  a sensation  in  Paris  and  London  in  1878.  But 
before  that,  the  American,  Charles  F.  Brush,  had  turned  his 
attention  to  arc  lighting.  He  completed  drawings  for  a dynamo  of 
his  own  design  in  1876,  and  two  of  these  machines  were  exhibited 
at  Franklin  Institute  in  Philadelphia  in  1877.  In  this  year  also 
Brush  exhibited  a new  arc  lamp.  The  first  Brush  arc  lighting 
dynamo  arid  lamp  actually  sold  were  shipped  to  Cincinnati  in 
January,  1878.  In  this  year  arc  lights  (Brush)  were  exhibited 
in  Chicago  for  the  first  time.  Elihu  Thomson  built  an  arc- 


KLEOTRICIT V THU  MJRDEN  BEARER 


11 


lighting  dynamo  in  1879,  which  was  used  in  Philadelphia  in  that 
year.  Edward  Weston,  James  J.  Wood  and  Charles  E.  Scrib- 
ner were  also  early  designers  in  this  field. 

Dr.  Brush  continued  to  improve  his  lighting  system,  and 
finally  dynamos  capable  of  operating  125  arc  lamps  made  their 
appearance.  By  the  end  of  1880  about  6,000  arc  lamps  had  been 
installed  in  the  United  States.  Much  trouble  was  experienced  in 
the  early  days  with  the  carbon  rods  used  in  the  arc  lamps,  but  all 
these  difficulties  were  overcome.  The  first  carbons  for  arc  lamps 
were  sold  at  the  rate  of  $240  a thousand,  but  in  later  years  they 
came  down  to  about  $10  a thousand.  In  the  heyday  of  “ series’ ’ 
arc  lighting,  before  the  “enclosed  arc”  was  introduced,  the 
annual  consumption  of  carbons  reached  nearly  200,000,000  in 
this  country  alone. 

Street  arc  lighting  was  first  effected  in  Cleveland  in  April, 
1879.  The  Telegraph  Supply  Company  of  Cleveland  changed  its 
name  to  the  Brush  Electric  Company  in  1881,  and  about  ten 
years  later  this  company  was  merged  into  the  Thomson-Houston 
Electric  Company.  Due  to  the  remarkable  increase  in  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  incandescent  lamp  and  its  greater  convenience  in 
operation,  arc  lighting  has  suffered  a great  decline  in  recent 
years.  It  is  probably  true,  however,  that  the  early  success  of 
arc  lighting  promoted  and  hastened  the  development  of  incan- 
descent lighting  as  well  as  power  transmission  and  electric  rail- 
ways. 

Edison  the  Inventor  of  the  Modern  Central  Station 

But  to  Thomas  A.  Edison  clearly  belongs  the  credit  of  creat- 
ing the  modern  electric  central-station  system  for  light  and 
power.  Edison  was  already  a^distinguished  inventor  when,  in 
1878,  backed  by  several  men  of  means,  he  turned  his  attention 
to  electric  lighting.  The  original  Edison  Electric  Light  Com- 
pany of  New  York,  the  parent  company,  was  organized  on  Octo- 
ber 16,  1878.  From  the  first,  Edison  conceived  an  electric-light- 
ing system,  not  only  an  incandescent  lamp  and  an  electric  genera- 
tor to  supply  the  electricity,  but  also,  and  perhaps  most  im- 
portant, a system  of  wiring  such  that  one  lamp  could  be  turned 


12 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


out  without  affecting  the  burning  of  the  others.  He  also  devised 
switching  mechanisms,  an  electricity  meter  and  many  other  ac- 
cessories. Not  only  that,  but  Edison  and  his  assistants  had  to 
devise  machinery  and  apparatus  to  make  these  various  electrical 
devices.  Everything  had  to  be  created  out  of  thin  air,  as  it 
were.  This  was  the  stupendous  task  accomplished  by  Edison. 

In  experimenting  for  an  incandescent  lamp  to  be  connected 
between  the  wires  of  an  electric  circuit,  or  ‘ ‘ in  parallel,  ’ ’ instead 
of  being  “in  series”  with  the  other  lamps  on  the  circuit,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  early  arc  lamps,  Edison  at  first  used  platinum 
wire  for  a filament  and  then  tried  mixing  the  platinum  with 
iridium.  There  were  many  experiments  before  the  carbon  fila- 
ment burning  in  a vacuum  was  hit  upon.  It  was  no  doubt  these 
experiments  that  were  described  before  the  American  Electrical 
Society,  of  Chicago — the  first  and  for  several  years  the  only 
national  electrical  society  in  the  United  States — by  George  H. 
Bliss  on  December  11,  1878.  This  was  one  of  the  very  first 
descriptions  of  Edison’s  light.  However,  the  successful  incan- 
descent electric  lamp  with  a carbon  filament  was  not  produced 
by  Edison  until  October  21,  1879.  It  was  not  until  some  time 
later  that  the  Edison  carbon  incandescent  lamps  came  to  Chicago. 
Dr.  H.  S.  Carhart,  then  professor  of  physics  in  Northwestern 
University,  believed  that  he  received  from  Edison,  in  May,  1881, 
the  first  incandescent  lamps  that  ever  came  to  Chicago. 

Edison  was  not  alone  in  trying  to  produce  an  incandescent 
electric  lamp.  Sawyer  and  Man  took  out  their  first  patent  for 
an  incandescent  electric  lamp  on  June  18,  1878.  Other  early 
workers  in  this  field  were  Joseph  W.  Swan  of  England  and 
Hiram  S.  Maxim.  But  after  some  years  of  controversy  and  court 
litigation  it  was  generally  conceded,  both  in  this  country  and 
abroad,  that  Edison  was  the  first  to  produce  a practically  useful 
electric  lamp  on  the  incandescent  principle  with  a filament  of 
carbon  in  a vacuum. 

At  Menlo  Park  Early  in  1881 

In  the  winter  of  1880-1881  Edison  installed  a central-station 
system  at  Menlo  Park,  New  Jersey,  for  the  purpose  of  demon- 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


strafing  I lie  success  of  wlmt  was  popularly  called  the  subdivision 
of  the  electric  light.  The  generating  station  was  composed  of 
nine  or  ten  dynamos  of  a rating  of  perhaps  six  to  ten  kilowatts 
each,  which  may  be  compared  with  the  35,000-kilowatt  or  50,000- 
kilowatt  machines  of  the  present  day.  Mr.  Edison’s  workshops 
and  laboratory  and  his  own  residence  and  those  of  his  assistants 
were  lighted  by  incandescent  lamps.  The  wires  were  laid  under- 


Thomas  A.  Edison,  at  Seventy-Three,  Still  Hard  at  Work 

ground.  There  were  motors  at  work  in  the  laboratory,  and,  in 
fact,  all  of  the  essential  features  of  modern  central-station  gen- 
eration and  distribution  were  shown. 

Many  years  later,  Samuel  Insull  wrote  an  account  of  this 
first  central  station.  “It  was  on  the  evening  of  the  first  of 
March,  1881,”  he  said,  “that  I paid  my  first  visit  to  Menlo 
Park.  I had  arrived  in  New  York  from  England  the  day  before, 
having  come  on  the  invitation  of  Mr.  Edison  to  act  as  his  private 
secretary.  We  had  heard  all  kinds  of  gossip  in  London  about 


14 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


the  wonderful  things  that  were  being  done  at  Menlo  Park  in  the 
way  of  practical  electric-lighting  work.  Mr.  Edison  had  been 
writing  to  bis  English  friends  for  two  years  prior  to  the  date 
of  my  arrival  in  New  York,  telling  of  his  success,  but  as  we  had 
had  no  demonstration  of  it  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  and 
the  scientists  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  expressed  their  doubts 
as  to  the  results  of  Mr.  Edison’s  experimental  work,  my  natural 
desire  when  I arrived  was  to  pay  an  immediate  visit  to  Menlo 
Park  and  cable  my  English  friends  that  I had  actually  seen  Mr. 
Edison’s  central-station  system  at  work.  So  far  as  the  service 
rendered,  this  first  experimental  plant  at  the  birthplace  of  the 
central-station  industry  was  as  perfect  as  the  service  now  given 
by  any  of  the  central-station  companies  in  our  large  cities. 
# # # At  the  same  time,  and  running  from  the  same  generat- 

ing station,  Mr.  Edison  had  in  operation  about  a mile  of  electric 
railway,  the  track  being  partially  insulated  and  used  for  con- 
ducting the  current.  A speed  of  42  miles  an  hour  was  attained, 
and  over  5,000  people  rode  on  this  experimental  electric  rail- 
way ’ ’ 

The  Idea  Begins  to  Spread 

The  first  commercial  central-station  system  in  the  world  that 
has  been  in  operation  continuously  ever  since  was  that  of  the 
Edison  Electric  Illuminating  Company  of  New  York,  which  was 
organized  on  December  17,  1880.  This  company  began  the  work 
of  laying  the  street  mains  for  the  Pearl  Street  central  station  in 
New  York  in  July,  1881,  and  the  plant  was  put  into  permanent 
operation  on  September  4,  1882.  It  is  believed  that  the  first  com- 
mercial central  station  for  incandescent  electric  lighting  was  one 
erected  in  London,  England,  in  April,  1882.  However,  this  plant 
was  discontinued  two  or  three  years  later.  The  Pearl  Street 
station  in  New  York,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  original  generat- 
ing station  of  the  present  system  of  the  New  York  Edison  Com- 
pany. The  Western  Edison  Light  Company  of  Chicago  was 
chartered  on  May  25,  1882.  It  sold  the  machinery  for  a small 
waterpower-driven  central  station  which  was  put  into  operation 
in  Appleton,  Wis.,  on  or  about  October  15,  1882.  This  was  the 
second  Edison  central-station  system  in  the  United  States. 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


15 


Edison’s  three-wire  system  of  wiring,  which  effected  a great 
saving  in  copper,  was  developed  in  1882  and  1883.  The  central- 
station  idea  grew  rather  slowly  at  first,  owing  to  the  amount  of 
capital  required,  although  many  isolated  electric-light  plants 
were  installed.  But  in  a few  years  Edison  electric  central  sta- 
tions were  established  in  all  the  larger  cities.  That  in  Boston 


Dynamo  Room  of  the  Old  Pearl  Street  Edison  Central  Station  in 
New  York  City,  Built  in  1882 


began  business  in  1886.  In  1887  The  Chicago  Edison  Company 
succeeded  the  Western  Edison  Light  Company,  and  in  1888  it 
began  to  manufacture  and  distribute  electricity. 

From  1881  to  1892  the  Edison  manufacturing  interests,  com- 
ing into  being  as  a group  of  new  industries,  expanded  amazingly. 
The  indomitable  leader  had  as  assistants  a body  of  enthusiastic 
and  loyal  men  who  shared  with  him  the  honor  of  being  Edison 
pioneers — men  like  Charles  Batchelor,  Samuel  Insull,  Edward 
H.  Johnson,  John  Kruesi,  Francis  R.  Upton  and  Sigmund  Berg- 
mann.  With  the  help  of  these  men  and  others  of  their  kind,  Mr. 
Edison  built  up  the  Electric  Tube  Company,  Edison  Machine 
Works,  Edison  Lamp  Company  and  Bergmann  & Company,  all 
of  which  were  merged  into  the  Edison  General  Electric  Company 


16 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


in  1889.  The  Edison  works  at  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  were  opened 
on  Christmas  Day  in  1886.  When  the  Edison  General  Electric 
Company  was  organized  Mr.  Insnll  was  made  second  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  company,  having  charge  of  manufacturing  and  sell- 
ing. In  1892  the  Edison  General  Electric  Company  was  con- 
solidated with  the  Thomson-Houston  Electric  Company  to  form 
the  present  General  Electric  Company.  Mr.  Insull  was  elected 
second  vice-president  of  the  newly  organized  company,  but  lie 
immediately  resigned  to  become  president  of  The  Chicago  Edison 
Company,  predecessor  of  the  present  Commonwealth  Edison 
Company,  which  has  become  the  largest  individual  electricity- 
supply  organization  of  the  world  under  Mr.  Insull ’s  administra- 
tion. 

The  Alternating-Current  System 

Meanwhile  the  third  system  for  electricity  supply  was  being 
developed  in  the  United  States.  This  was  the  alternating-cur- 
rent system,  and  with  it  is  inseparably  connected  the  name  of 
George  Westingliouse.  Both  the  early  arc-lighting  and  the  early 
Edison  systems,  it  may  be  explained,  used  direct  current,  per- 
haps following  the  lead  of  the  voltaic  batteries.  Mr.  Westing- 
house,  an  American  inventor  and  business  man  who  established 
the  great  companies  which  bear  his  name,  came  into  prominence 
as  the  inventor  of  mechanical  devices  for  railroad  use,  such  as  air 
brakes,  switches  and  signals.  However,  he  also  had  the  distinc- 
tion of  recognizing  at  an  early  date  the  merits  of  the  alternating 
current  system  of  electrical  distribution,  and  he  gave  much  of 
his  personal  attention  to  the  development  of  this  system  in  its 
formative  period.  He  purchased  some  electrical  patents  from 
William  Stanley  as  far  back  as  1883.  Two  years  later  he  pur- 
chased the  patents  of  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  for  the  distribution  of 
electricity  by  means  of  alternating  currents,  and  in  1886  he  or- 
ganized the  Westingliouse  Electric  Company,  which  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Westingliouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany in  1891.  In  1885,  at  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  William 
Stanley  effected  the  first  commercial  distribution  system  using 
alternating  currents.  The  first  regularly  operated  alternating- 


klkotrkhty  rr 1 1 1<:  bijrdwn  bearer 


17 


18 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


current  plant  in  the  United  States  was  that  established  by  the 
Westinghouse  Company  at  Greensburg,  Pa.,  in  1886.  The  alter- 
nating-current transformer,  a most  important  piece  of  apparatus, 
based,  as  has  been  stated,  on  Faraday’s  discovery  of  induction, 
was  crudely  developed  in  England  by  Gaulard  and  Gibbs,  but 
made  a practical,  working  accomplishment  by  William  Stanley. 

The  introduction  of  the  alternating-current  system  and  the 
Edison  three-wire  system  gave  a tremendous  impetus  to  the  elec- 
tric-lighting industry.  Mr.  Westinghouse  pushed  the  alternating- 
current  system  to  a commercial  success.  One  of  his  triumphs 
was  the  incandescent  lighting  by  alternating  current  of  the 
World’s  Fair  at  Chicago  in  1893,  iising  a so-called  “stopper” 
type  of  incandescent  lamp  necessitated  by  the  patent  situation 
at  that  time.  This  lamp,  which  was  gas-filled,  like  some  of  the 
tungsten  lamps  of  today,  was  considered  by  many  as  a doubtful 
substitute  for  the  Edison  lamp,  but  it  worked  nevertheless,  and 
the  World’s  Fair  was  very  well  lighted.  But  it  was  the  Edison 
type  of  electric  incandescent  lamp  which  finally  prevailed.  In 
addition  to  being  the  head  of  a number  of  corporations  in  Amer- 
ica, representing  an  investment  of  many  millions  of  dollars,  Mr. 
Westinghouse  established  large  factories  and  works  in  Europe. 

In  the  Days  When  Competition  Was  Bitter 

In  1888  Nikola  Tesla  contributed  very  materially  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  alternating-current  side  of  the  electricity-sup- 
ply utility.  In  that  year  his  polyphase-current  patents,  which 
form  the  basis  largely  of  the  alternating-current  generators  and 
motors  now  in  use,  were  taken  out.  Among  the  first  to  recog- 
nize the  great  importance  of  Mr.  Tesla’s  motors  were  Mr.  West- 
inghouse and  his  advisers.  The  Tesla  patents  were  purchased 
by  the  Westinghouse  Company  and  proved  a very  valuable  asset. 
The  famous  Lauffen-Frankfort  electrical  power  transmission  in 
Germany,  using  the  Tesla  system,  was  accomplished  in  1891,  but 
it  is  believed  that  the  first  crude  electric  power  transmission  in 
practice  dates  from  1890,  when  the  beginning  was  made  in  one 
of  the  mining  regions  of  Colorado.  The  great  hydro-electric  de- 
velopment at  Niagara  Falls  dates  from  1895,  although  its  main 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


19 


electrical  characteristics  had  been  determined  by  an  international 
engineering  commission  in  1893. 

Electricity-at-Work  has  been  directed  not  only  by  great  scien- 
tists, inventors  and  engineers,  but  also  by  great  men  of  affairs. 
Some  of  these  have  been  mentioned.  In  1882  Charles  A. 


A View  in  Northwest  Generating  Station,  Chicago 

Here  machines  of  the  vertical  type  are  in  the  foreground.  The  rated  capacity 
of  this  station  is  165,000  kilowatts. 

Coffin,  who  had  been  engaged  in  manufacturing,  became  in- 
terested, with  others,  in  the  inventions  of  Elihu  Thomson  and 
Edwin  J.  Houston  of  Philadelphia.  Prof.  Thomson  and  Prof. 
Houston  had  been  teachers  in  the  Central  High  School  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  had  made  some  electrical  inventions,  principally  re- 
lating to  arc  lighting,  jointly.  Dr.  Thomson  resigned  his  pro- 
fessorship in  1880  and  boldly  cast  his  lot  with  the  then  truly 


20 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


infant  electrical  industry.  Prof.  Houston  (who  died  in  1914) 
remained  at  the  Central  High  School  for  many  years  afterward, 
but  the  joint  name  was  long  employed.  The  Thomson-Houston 
Electric  Company  established  a small  factory  in  New  Britain, 
Conn.  These  works  were  taken  over  by  Mr.  Coffin  and  his  . 
friends,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  1883  were  transferred  to  a 
new  factory  in  Lynn,  Mass.  Here  the  Thomson-Houston  Electric 
Company  became  one  of  the  great  electrical  manufacturing  enter- 
prises of  the  country.  It  was  merged  into  the  General  Electric 
Company  in  1892.  Elihu  Thomson  has  been  consulting  en- 
gineer for  the  Thomson-Houston  Electric  Company  and  the  Gen- 
eral Electric  Company  for  many  years. 

While  the  direct-current  electricity  business  was  being  ex- 
ploited by  the  Edison  companies,  the  Westinghouse  Electric 
Company  and  the  Thomson-Houston  Electric  Company  were  en- 
gaged in  pushing  the  alternating-current  business  and  using  as 
a basis  for  it  the  arc-lighting  companies  which  in  a number  of 
cities  had  been  formed  mainly  by  the  Brush  Electric  Company 
for  doing  city  lighting.  In  1885,  when  the  National  Electric 
Light  Association  was  formed  in  Chicago,  it  was  thought  that 
there  were  perhaps  eighty  central  station  companies  in  the  coun- 
try, mainly  arc-lighting  companies  operating  at  night  only.  For 
many  years  there  was  a most  acrimonious  discussion  between  the 
champions  of  the  direct  current  and  of  the  alternating  current. 
Both  in  the  end  prevailed,  for  the  old  Edison  central-station 
companies  have  always  kept  the  lead  in  connection  with  central- 
station  development,  while  actually  the  alternating-current  sys- 
tem is  now  used  so  extensively  in  generating  and  transmitting 
electric  power  that  no  one  would  think  of  building  a direct-cur- 
rent central  station  for  use  where  any  large  amount  of  electrical 
energy  is  required  over  an  extended  area.  But  for  some  pur- 
poses, such  as  most  electric-railway  motors,  charging  storage 
batteries,  etc.,  direct  current  is  still  required. 

A Glance  at  the  Telephone 

In  this  pamphlet,  devoted  principally  to  the  lighting  and 
power  developments  of  Electricity-at-Work,  but  scant  attention 


ELECTRICITY  TILE  BURDEN  BEARER 


21 


can  be  paid  to  that  wonderful  invention — the  telephone.  In  1854 
Bourseul  of  Paris  suggested  an  electric  telephone,  and  in  1861 
Philip  Reis  of  Germany  devised  an.  electric  telephone  which 
•would  transmit  musical  tones.  Daniel  Drawbaugh  of  Pennsyl- 
vania alleged  that  he  had  made  an  electric  telephone  in  1867- 
1868.  Elisha  Gray  and  Thomas  A.  Edison  were  also  early  tele- 
phone inventors  of  the  first  importance.  But  the  courts  decided 
that  Alexander  Graham  Bell  invented  the  electric  speaking  tele- 
phone, his  first  application  for  a patent  being  on  February  14, 
1876.  Blake  and  Berliner  were  also  early  telephone  inventors. 
Bell  telephone  companies  were  established  in  all  the  large  cities, 
with  a long-distance  system  connecting  them.  When  the  funda- 
mental Bell  patents  expired  a large  number  of  Independent  com- 
peting companies  sprang  up  in  the  nineties.  A formidable  tele- 
phone opposition  was  developed,  and  for  a number  of  years  there 
was  bitter  warfare  between  the  two  camps.  At  the  present  time 
a large  majority  of  the  Independent  companies  connect  with  the 
American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company,  or  its  subsidiaries, 
for  long-distance  service.  Strowger,  an  electrical  engineer  and 
mechanician  of  Chicago,  introduced  the  first  automatic  telephone 
system  in  1891.  The  earliest  automatic  designs  were  quite  com- 
plicated, but  constant  improvements  were  made,  and  the  equip- 
ment was  simplified.  The  automatic  system  came  into  use  grad- 
ually at  first  in  Independent  exchanges  in  small  places  and  later 
in  larger  cities.  According  to  present  indications,  the  next  great 
telephone  development  will  be  the  use  of  automatic  exchanges, 
both  by  Bell  and  Independent  companies. 

The  Western  Electric  Company,  Incorporated,  has  been  closely 
identified  with  the  telegraph  and  telephone  industry  in  the 
United  States,  but  it  is  also  a large  manufacturer  of  electrical 
supplies  and  appliances,  and  at  one  time  made  a complete  line 
of  electrical  machinery  and  apparatus,  both  direct-current  and 
alternating-current.  It  is  the  outgrowth  of  a telegraph-instru- 
ment shop  established  in  Cleveland  by  the  late  Enos  M.  Barton 
in  partnership  with  George  W.  Shawk,  in  1869.  Within  a year 
Mr.  Shawk  sold  out  to  Elisha  Gray,  later  prominent  as  an  elec- 
trical inventor,  and  who  was  president  of  the  International  Elec- 


22 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


Modern  Electric  Transmission-Line  Construction 

1,000-foot  span  across  the  Des  Plaines  River  south  of  Joliet,  111.,  with  generating  station  on  farther  shore.  The 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


trical  Congress  at  Chicago  in  1893.  The  firm  name  was  changed 
to  Gray  & Barton,  and  a little  later  Gen.  Anson  Stager,  a tele- 
graph pioneer,  afterward  vice-president  of  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company,  became  an  equal  partner  in  the  firm  on  con- 
dition that  the  business  should  be  removed  to  Chicago.  This  was 
done  in  1870.  The  little  shop  began  to  do  manufacturing,  and 
in  1872  the  Western  Electric  Manufacturing  Company  was  in- 
corporated to  take  over  the  business.  Gen.  Stager  was  the  first 
president  of  the  company.  Mr.  Barton  was  the  secretary,  and 
later  became  vice-president.  In  1879  the  company  was  reorgan- 
ized as  the  Western  Electric  Company,  Gen.  Stager  (who  also 
became  president  of  the  Western  Edison  Light  Company, 
previously  mentioned,  in  1882)  remaining  as  president  until 
his  death  in  1885.  In  1886  Mr.  Barton  became  president  of  the 
company,  retiring  in  1908  to  become  chairman  of  the  board  of 
directors.  The  Western  Electric  Company  was  reorganized  as 
the  Western  Electric  Company,  Incorporated,  in  1915. 

Early  Days  of  the  “Broomstick  Train” 

The  electric  railway  also  came  into  being  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  first  miniature  electric  railway 
carrying  passengers  was  put  in  operation  at  Berlin  in  1879  by 
Siemens  & Halske.  Mention  of  Edison’s  work  has  already  been 
made,  but  Edison  dropped  the  electric  railway  for  the  electric 
light.  In  1883  an  electric  railway  car  was  operated  at  an  ex- 
hibition in  Chicago  on  the  Lake  Front  in  the  old  Exposition 
Building  where  the  Art  Institute  now  stands.  However,  the 
commercial  introduction  of  the  electric  railway  in  the  United 
States  dates  from  the  building  of  a complete  and  successful  sys- 
tem in  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1887  and  1888,  by  Sprague.  The  first 
elevated  electric  railway  in  the  United  States  was  that  at  the 
Chicago  World’s  Fair  of  1893.  Stephen  D.  Field,  Charles  J. 
Van  Depoele,  Leo  Daft,  Sidney  H.  Short  and  others  were  promi- 
nent electric-railway  inventors,  but  it  was  Frank  J.  Sprague, 
sometimes  called  “the  father  of  the  electric  railway,”  who,  more 
than  any  other  man,  brought  the  thing  to  pass.  Within  six 
years  from  the  opening  of  the  Richmond  system  five-sixths  of  the 


24 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


existing  horse-car  lines  in  the  country  had  been  converted  into 
electric  railways.  Seldom  has  an  industrial  revolution  been  so 
quickly  accomplished.  The  Van  Depoele  Electric  Manufactur- 
ing Company  of  Chicago  was  absorbed  by  the  Thomson-Houston 
Electric  Company  in  1888,  and  the  Sprague  Electric  Railway 
and  Motor  Company  by  the  Edison  General  Electric  Company 
in  1890.  The  Westinghouse  Company  was  also  active  in  electric- 
railway work.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  when  he  nicknamed  the 
trolley  car,  with  its  upstanding  pole,  the  “broomstick  train/ ’ 
could  hardly  have  foreseen  that  the  time  would  come  when  it 
would  carry  15,000,000,000  passengers  a year  in  this  country 

Electrical  Pioneers  Not  Without  Honor 

Being  a child  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Electricity-at-Work 
could  not  be  measured  by  units  having  names  extending  back 
into  the  dim  past,  like  foot,  pound  and  quart.  It  was  necessary 
to  invent  designations  for  the  electrical  units  of  measurement,  and 
it  was  decided,  happily,  to  honor  the  names  of  electrical  pioneers 
in  this  way.  The  units  ohm,  volt  and  ampere  were  first  authori- 
tatively defined  in  1881,  and  the  watt,  more  commonly  used  in 
“kilowatt, ” in  1889.  The}’'  commemorate  the  names  of  a Ger- 
man, an  Italian,  a Frenchman  and  a Scotchman.  Electrical 
units  less  frequently  encountered  in  non-technical  literature  per- 
petuate the  names  of  other  electrical  scientists,  including  Cou- 
lomb, Maxwell,  Gauss,  Gilbert,  Faraday,  Henry  and  Joule.  The 
fundamental  electrical  units  are  international,  and  they  are  also, 
like  the  metric  system,  expressed  in  the  decimal  notation,  a kilo- 
watt being  a thousand  watts,  and  so  on.  The  watt  is  the  elec- 
trical unit  of  power,  and  the  kilowatt-hour  is  the  unit  of  work 
which  is  usually  used  in  the  sale  of  electrical  energy. 

The  many  and  important  applications  of  electrochemistry  are 
all  comparatively  modern,  although  the  electrical  production  of 
aluminum  was  described  in  patents  granted  in  1885.  Electric 
welding,  as  extensively  used  in  the  present  day,  was  invented 
by  Elihu  Thomson  in  1886.  The  electric  automobile,  in  its  first 
crude  form,  appeared  about  1890,  although  “electric  carriages’' 
were  known  before  that  date.  In  1891  Branly  invented  the 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


25 

colierer  used  in  wireless  telegraphy.  Marconi  greatly  developed 
and  improved  “wireless”  in  1895  and  thereafter.  X-rays  were 
discovered  by  W.  C.  Roentgen  in  1895. 

Civilization’s  Servant  at  Work 

Wonderful,  indeed,  have  been  the  accomplishments  of  Elec- 
tricitv-at-Work  since  the  lights  of  the  first  central  station  were 
reflected  from  the  snows  of  Menlo  Park  early  in  1881.  It  has 
brought  light  and  cheer  to  the  depressed,  strength  to  the  weak, 
and  relief  to  the  weary.  It  is  found  in  the  home,  the  office,  the 
hospital,  the  laboratory,  the  workshop,  the  factory,  the  rolling- 
mill.  the  mine,  the  store,  on  the  farm  and  the  railroad — prac- 
tically everywhere  where  heat,  light  and  power  are  required.  It 
is  as  efficacious  in  producing  a soothing  breeze  at  the  bedside  of 
a sick  child  as  it  is  in  towing  30,000-ton  ships  through  the 
Panama  Canal.  In  the  fanciful  language  of  H.  A.  Seymour : 

This  very  subtle  essence  is  the  lightning  of  the  gods; 

’Twill  travel  instanteously  forty  million  rods. 

You  turn  it  into  light  or  heat  or  power,  as  you  will ; 
Commercially  it  “takes  the  cake,”  no  matter  what  the  odds. 

Its  brilliant  light  can  equal  all  the  blaze  of  noonday  sun; 

’Twill  heat  a smelter  furnace ; it  will  bake  your  breakfast  bun, 
Or  gently  rock  the  baby’s  cradle,  pull  a train  uphill, 

Or  do  a thousand  other  stunts — the  list  is  just  begun. 

Then  ho ! for  amperes,  watts  and  volts 
And  artificial  thunderbolts ! 

For  roaring  fires,  copper  wires,  central  energy, 

For  engines  singing  day  and  night, 

For  motive  power,  heat  and  light, 

For  clean  and  ready,  safe  and  steady  Electricity ! 

Among  the  reasons  why  the  electricity-supply  utility  in  the 
United  States  has  exhibited  such  a rapid  development  are  the 
high  efficiency  of  the  electric  generator,  enabling  mechanical 
energy  to  be  changed  into  electrical  energy  with  but  small  loss ; 
the  ability  to  transmit  this  energy  over  long  distances  at  high 
efficiency  by  means  of  simple  and  relatively  inexpensive  con- 
struction ; the  great  improvement  in  efficiency  of  the  incandescent 
electric  lamp;  the  development  of  the  steam  turbine,  which  in 


26 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


the  larger  sizes  effects  a saving  in  steam  of  50  per  cent  or  more 
in  comparison  with  the  reciprocating  steam  engine,  and  the 
great  economies  effected  by  centralizing  power  generation  in 
large  units.  The  development  of  the  transformer  and  of  the 
rotary  converter  in  alternating-current  distribution  also  had 
much  to  do  in  spreading  electricity. 

Steam  turbines  have  practically  replaced  reciprocating  engines 
in  large  electric  generating  stations.  In  1896  George  Westing- 
house  secured  the  rights  to  manufacture  the  Parsons  steam  tur- 
bine in  this  country.  Turbines  came  into  use  slowly  at  first,  and 
it  was  not  until  1903  that  one  central-station  company  manifested 
sufficient  boldness  to  build  an  all-turbine  generating  station. 
This  company  was  the  Commonwealth  Electric  Company  of  Chi- 
cago, a predecessor  of  the  Commonwealth  Edison  Company,  Sam- 
uel Insull  being  its  president  and  the  man  responsible  for  the 
innovation.  The  station  referred  to  was  the  famous  Fisk  Street 
plant,  and  the  original  turbines  were  of  the  Curtis  type  made 
by  the  General  Electric  Company.  So  rapid  was  the  progress 
of  the  art  that  within  six  years  these  original  turbines  were 
taken  down  to  make  way  for  others  of  a more  efficient  type.  The 
original  5,000-kilowatt  machine  at  Fisk  Street  was  re-erected  at 
the  Schenectady  works  of  the  manufacturing  company,  where  it 
now  stands  as  a monument  to  the  development  of  the  art. 

Power  Transmission  and  Railroad  Electrification 

Electricity  has  made  it  practicable  to  transmit  over  long  dis- 
tances power  generated  at  waterfalls  or  other  economical  source 
of  supply.  Some  of  the  earliest  hydro-electric  systems  were 
built  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  and  Pacific  states,  owing  to  the 
abundance  of  waterpower  and  the  scarcity  of  coal  in  that  part  of 
the  country.  Electric  power  is  now  transmitted  hundreds  of 
miles  at  pressures  of  150,000  volts  or  more.  The  Niagara  Falls 
region,  both  on  the  American  and  Canadian  sides,  is  still  the 
greatest  single  center  of  hydro-electric  development.  In  Illinois 
the  largest  electrically  developed  waterpower  is  that  of  the 
Sanitary  District  of  Chicago,  on  the  Chicago  Drainage  Canal, 
but  this  is  comparatively  small,  being  rated  at  about  28,000  kilo- 


ELECTRICITY  the  burden  bearer 


27 


watts.  It  was  built  in  1904-1907.  However,  Illinois  gets  some 
of  its  electrical  energy  from  the  interesting  and  important  hydro- 
electric development  on  the  Mississippi  River,  between  Keokuk, 
Iowa,  and  Hamilton,  111.,  which  has  a rated  capacity  of  about 
125,000  kilowatts.  The  building  of  this  plant  was  begun  in  1911 
and  completed  in  1913. 

Heavy  railroading  is  done  by  electric  power  in  many  places 
in  the  United  States,  particularly  in  large  city  terminals  and  in 
tunnels.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  example  of  trunk-line 
operation  by  electric  locomotives  is  that  of  650  miles  of  the  main 
line  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  Railway  in  Montana, 
Idaho  and  Washington,  crossing  four  mountain  ranges,  includ- 
ing the  Continental  Divide  of  the  Rockies.  Here  waterpower, 
much  of  it  from  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Missouri  River,  is  changed 
into  electric  power  and  delivered  to  the  railroad  from  a number 
of  substations  scattered  along  the  route.  The  electric  locomotives 
employed  for  this  particular  job  of  Electricity-at-Work  are  rated 
at  3,440  horsepower,  weigh  284  tons  and  are  112  feet  long. 
Each  one  takes  the  place  of  four  ordinary  steam  locomotives. 
In  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains  this  railroad  reaches  an  altitude 
of  6,322  feet. 

One  of  the  more  recent  applications  of  electricity  is  in  the 
propulsion  of  great  ships.  Following  the  example  of  the  collier 
Jupiter,  the  new  U.  S.  S.  New  Mexico,  a first-class  battleship  600 
feet  long  and  of  32,000  tons  displacement,  is  electrically  pro- 
pelled. It  is  announced  that  the  U.  S.  S.  California  and  other 
capital  ships  of  the  United  States  Navy  will  also  be  driven  by 
electric  motors.  No  doubt  electric  drive  will  also  be  employed 
on  merchant  ships,  owing  to  its  economy  and  convenience. 

Thirty-five  Billion  Kilowatt-Hours 

Statistics  are  apt  to  be  tiresome ; but  how  can  we  show  without 
them,  in  compact  form,  what  our  friend  Electricity-at-Work  has 
done?  The  figures  are  indeed  imposing.  It  may  be  estimated 
that  the  total  capitalization  in  1918  of  all  the  industries  of  the 
United  States  that  may  be  called  electrical  was  $14,000,000,000, 
and  that  the  total  income  of  these  industries  for  that  year  was 


28 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


A General  View  of  the  Hydro-Electric  Development  “Harnessing”  the  Mississippi  River  at  Keokuk 

The  locks  for  navigation  are  shown  in  the  foreground. 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


29 


$3,000,000,000.  This,  however,  includes  not  only  the  elect ric- 
light-and-power  central  stations  and  electrical  manufacturing, 
but  also  electric  railways  of  various  kinds,  the  telephone  and 
the  telegraph  and  other  miscellaneous  applications. 

Concerning  the  electricity-supply  utility  itself,  more  exact 
figures  are  at  hand  for  the  year  1917.  The  United  States  Census 
Reports  show  that  for  that  year  electric-light-and-power  stations 


Electric  Locomotive  Drawing  Passenger  Train  Emerging  From 
Eagle  Nest  Tunnel  in  Rocky  Mountains. 


of  the  United  States  generated  more  than  25,000,000,000  kilo- 
watt-hours* of  electrical  energy,  producing  an  income  of  more 
than  $500,000,000,  and  giving  employment  to  more  than  100.000 
persons.  Detailed  figures  are  given  in  the  table  on  next  page, 
showing  the  remarkable  increases  since  1907.  For  instance,  the 

* Careful  estimates  put  the  corresponding  figure  for  1919  at  about 
35,000,000,000  kilowatt-hours. 


30 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


rating  of  stationary  electric  motors  served  from  central  stations 
increased  over  450  per  cent  in  the  ten  years  from  1907  to  1917. 

Electric  Light  and  Power  Stations  in  the  United  States 


1917 

1912 

1907 

Number  of  establishments.  . 

6,541 

5,221 

4,714 

Commercial  

4,224 

3,659 

3,462 

Municipal  

2,317 

1,562 

1,252 

Income  

$526,886,408 

$302,273,398 

$175,642,338 

Electric  service 

$502,100,346 

$287,138,657 

$169,614,691 

All  other  

$ 24,786,062 

$ 15,134,741 

$ 6,027,647 

Total  expenses,  including  sal- 

aries and  wages  

$427,136,049 

$234,577,277 

$134,196,911 

Number  of  persons  employed. 

105,546 

79,335 

47,632 

Salaries  and  wages 

$ 95,239,954 

$ 61,161,941 

$ 35,420,324 

Total  horsepower 

12,857,998 

7,530,044 

4,098,188 

Steam  engines : 

Number  

7,464 

7,847 

8,054 

Horsepower  

8,389,389 

4,949,778 

2,693,273 

Internal  combustion  engines : 

Number  

2,946 

1,116 

463 

Horsepower  

217,186 

111,035 

55,828 

Water  wheels : 

Number  

3,357 

2,939 

2,481 

Horsepower  

4,251,423 

2,469,231 

1,349,087 

Kilowatt  capacity  of  dynamos 

9,001,872 

5,165,439 

2,709,225 

Output  of  stations,  kilowatt- 

hours  

25,438,611,417 

11,569,109,885 

5,862,276,737 

Stationary  motors  served: 

Number  

554,817 

435,473 

167,184 

Horsepower  

9,216,323 

4,130,619 

1,649,026 

Number  of  street  lamps : 

Arc 

256,838 

1,389,382 

348,643 

681,957 

Incandescent  etc 

The  capitalization  of  the  electricity-supply  utility  of  the 
United  States  in  1917  was  probably  $3,000,000,000  or  more.  It 
takes  from  four  to  seven  years  for  the  electric-service  company 
to  “turn  over”  its  capital.  Thus  for  every  $1.00  of  income  the 
utility  has  from  $4.00  to  $7.00  invested,  so  that,  if  money  costs 
the  utility  7 per  cent,  the  annual  interest  charge  on  every  dollar 
of  income  is  from  28  cents  to  49  cents.  In  the  electrical  manu- 
facturing industry,  the  figures  for  1918  (see  page  31)  show  a 
turnover  of  capital  in  less  than  eight  months,  or  three  times  in 
two  years — a decided  contrast. 


ELECTRICITY  the  burden  bearer 


31 


Electrical  Manufactures  and  Exports 

As  to  the  production  of  electrical  machinery,  apparatus  and 
supplies,  no  census  figures  are  available  later  than  1914.  The 
value  of  these  products  for  that  year  was  placed  at  $359,412,676. 
Some  of  the  principal  items  of  this  total  were : 


Insulated  wires  and  cables $69,505,573 

Motors  44,176,235 

Dynamos  23,233,437 

Telephone  apparatus 22,815,640 

Magneto-ignition  apparatus,  sparks,  coils,  etc 22,260,847 

Incandescent  lamps  17,350,385 

Transformers  13,120,065 

Storage  batteries  10,615,150 

Electric  measuring  instruments  8,786,506 

Primary  batteries  8,719,164 

Electric  heating  apparatus  4,034,436 

Electric  locomotives  3,720,914 

Telegraph  apparatus  2,248,375 


For  the  year  1918  the  value  of  electrical  machinery,  apparatus 
and  supplies  produced  in  the  United  States  was  probably  not  far 
from  $900,000,000,  for  the  three  principal  electrical  manufactur- 
ing companies  in  the  United  States  alone  reported  sales,  for  that 
year,  of  $522,421,220.  This  was  on  a capitalization  of  $320,015  - 
135.  Aside  from  the  three  largest,  there  are  probably  over  a 
thousand  other  electrical  manufacturing  establishments  in  the 
country,  some  of  which  are  of  large  size.  Expressed  in  tabular 
form,  the  capitalization  and  sales  of  the  three  leading  electrical 
manufacturing  companies  of  the  United  States  for  1918  were  as 
follows : 


Capitalization 


Sales 


General  Electric  Company 

Westinghouse  Electric  & Manufacturing 
Company  (year  ended  March  31,  1919) 
Western  Electric  Company,  Inc 


$152,921,800 

96,127,650 

70,965,685 


$216,815,277 

160,379,943 

145,226,000 


$320,015,135 


$522,421,220 


It  is  to  be  remarked  in  relation  to  the  sales  of  electrical  manu- 
facturing concerns  tabulated  above  that  they  related  to  a year 
of  war,  when  the  demand  was  very  heavy  and  prices  were  very 


32 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


high.  In  1914  New  York  was  the  first  electrical  manufacturing 
state  in  value  of  products,  Illinois  being  second,  Pennsylvania 
third,  Massachusetts  fourth,  New  Jersey  fifth  and  Ohio  sixth. 

About  40  per  cent  of  the  electrical  energy  produced  in  the 
United  States  comes  from  waterpower,  the  remaining  60  per  cent 
being  generated  in  stations  using  coal,  oil  or  other  fuel.  In 
states  like  Illinois  and  New  York  about  one-third  of  all  the 
primary  power  requirements  are  supplied  from  electric  central 
stations. 

Uncle  Sam’s  Electricity-at-Work  sends  his  handiwork  all  over 
the  world.  For  the  year  ended  December  31,  1919,  the  value  of 
electrical  exports  from  the  United  States  was  $89,089,711.  This 
is  the  largest  valuation  of  electrical  exports  from  the  United 
States  ever  recorded  for  one  year.  The  corresponding  figure 
for  1918  was  $59,982,526. 

The  Old  Order  Changeth 

While  the  material  progress  of  this  servant  of  mankind  has 
been  truly  marvelous,  the  conception  of  the  manner  in  which  elec- 
tricity should  be  produced  and  applied  to  public  use  has  under- 
gone very  great  changes.  When  electric  central  stations  were 
first  established,  no  one  could  foresee  the  dominating  part  which 
electricity  was  destined  to  play  in  modern  life.  Electric-light 
companies  were  started  purely  as  private  ventures,  often  as  the 
result  of  the  urging  of  manufacturers  of  electrical  machinery, 
and  the  business  was  exploited  like  any  private  business.  At 
first,  too,  the  central  stations  were  purely  local  affairs.  There 
was  a great  “boom”  in  electrical  affairs  in  the  late  eighties  and 
early  nineties.  Next  came  the  business  depression  of  1893  to 
1896.  Thereafter  the  managers  of  electric-service  enterprises 
began  to  study  their  business  with  more  care,  with  deeper  in- 
sight and  with  a keener  appreciation  of  its  economic  position  in 
the  community. 

It  was  discovered  that  the  old  system  of  flat  rates  for  electric 
service  was  unjust,  both  to  the  community  as  a whole  and  to  the 
producer.  Rates  were,  therefore,  gradually  adjusted  on  the  basis 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  demand  made  on  the  central-station 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


company.  The  percentage  of  time  that  electricity  is  used  in  pro- 
portion to  the  time  when  it  is  available  for  use  is  called  the 
“load  factor’7  of  the  utility,  and  a diligent  effort  was  made  to  im- 
prove this  load  factor.  In  making  rates  it  was  seen  not  to  be 
just  that  a man  who  uses  the  central-station  investment  only,  say, 
100  hours  a year,  should  be  able  to  buy  the  product  at  the  same 
price  per  unit  as  a man  who  uses  the  investment,  say,  3,000  hours 
a year,  when  the  amounts  of  money  invested  to  take  care  of  the 
two  customers  are  precisely  the  same.  Rates  should  be  adjusted 
so  as  to  pay  the  operating  expenses  required  for  good  service, 
plus  a fair  return  on  the  money  invested,  plus  a reasonable  al- 
lowance to  meet  depreciation.  So  far  as  it  can  be  arranged  in 
practice,  every  customer  should  pay  a rate  proportionate  to  the 
cost  of  the  service  furnished  to  him,  remembering  that  electric 
service  from  central  stations  is  more  of  the  nature  of  a service 
than  of  a commodity. 

The  Laborer  Is  Worthy  of  His  Hire 

In  studying  the  achievements  of  Electricity-at-Work  one  im- 
portant thing  to  remember  is  that  the  rates  for  electrical  energy, 
going  back  for  a term  of  years,  have  in  most  localities  materially 
decreased,  unless,  under  the  stress  of  war  conditions,  increases 
have  been  necessary  in  the  last  three  or  four  years.  But,  on  the 
whole,  these  prices  have  decreased,  while  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  rates  for  necessities  like  food,  clothing,  fuel  and  taxes  have 
increased  from  75  to  250  per  cent  or  more.  This  contrast  is  illus 
trated  by  a diagram  given  on  page  35.  This  is  accounted  for, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  labor  and  materials  used  in  the  pro- 
duction of  electrical  energy  have  very  materially  increased  in 
price,  by  the  fact  that,  with  the  advance  in  the  art,  great  econ- 
omies have  been  effected  by  the  use  of  large  generating  units, 
improved  incandescent  lamps,  and  in  other  ways.  Furthermore, 
the  almost  universal  use  of  electricity  nowadays  for  all  sorts  of 
purposes  enables  the  machinery  and  other  equipment  to  be  used 
for  a greater  proportion  of  the  twenty-four  hours.  This  reduces 
the  cost.  Conservative  financing  lias  also  played  its  part. 


34 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


In  the  eighties  central-station  rates  were  equivalent  to  about 
25  cents  a kilowatt-hour.  In  1898  the  average  income  of  large 
companies  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  seven  cents  a kilowatt- 
hour,  while  in  1919  the  average  income  of  the  Commonwealth 
Edison  Company  of  Chicago  was  about  two  cents  a kilowatt-hour. 
Many  factors  enter  into  the  making  of  equitable  rates,  and  the 
cost  of  producing  and  distributing  electricity  varies  to  a very  con- 
siderable extent  in  different  communities. 

How  This  Servant  Does  His  Best  Work 

Gradually  it  was  discovered  also  that  the  hap-hazard  hit-or- 
miss  plan  of  allowing  two  or  a dozen  or  half  a hundred  central- 
station  organizations  in  a given  community  was  all  wrong.  It 
was  found  that  the  cheapest  and  most  efficient  way  to  produce 
and  distribute  electrical  energy  was  by  operating  the  utility  as  a 
monopoly  over  as  large  a territory  as  could  be  economically 
served  from  one  organization.  The  word  “monopoly,”  as  used 
here,  does  not  have  the  offensive  meaning  of  that  word  at  com- 
mon law,  but  indicates  an  exclusive  privilege,  the  company  being 
subjected  to  such  reasonable  regulation  that  it  is  shorn  of  all  the 
evils  of  a monopoly.  At  first  the  electric-service  utilities  were 
regulated  by  municipal  authorities,  by  politics,  by  competition, 
or  by  threats  of  competition,  but  in  late  years  the  plan  of  regula- 
tion by  state  public-utility  commissions  has  been  adopted  largely. 
Out  of  the  forty-eight  states  in  the  Union  forty  have  public- 
utility  commissions  with  authority  over  electric-light-and-power 
companies. 

Central-station  managers  have  come  to  look  upon  themselves 
as  semi-public  officials ; they  aim  to  conduct  their  affairs  with  the 
community  so  as  to  secure  the  advantage  of  a reputation  for  abso- 
lutely fair  and  impartial  dealing.  No  longer  is  the  electricity- 
supply  enterprise  regarded  as  a private  venture ; it  is  now,  indeed, 
a public  utility.  In  a public-utility  enterprise  no  man  is  so  highly 
placed  that  he  can  afford  to  be  arrogant,  nor  is  any  man  so  lowly 
that  he  need  be  servile. 

To  effect  greater  economy,  and  often  to  improve  the  quality  of 
the  service,  the  generation  of  electrical  energy  in  small  places  is 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


35 


often  abandoned,  such  towns  and  the  intermediate  territory  be- 
tween them  being  served  from  a network  of  electrical  transmis- 
sion and  distribution  lines,  the  electricity  being  generated  at 
large  stations  at  economical  points  of  production  and  transmitted 
to  local  substations  and  distributing  systems. 

290 

225 


200 


175 


150 

125  3 

5 

Cft 

m 

100 


7$ 

-u 

m 

50  * 

o 

m 

z 

25 

0 

o 

m 

25  3 

m 
> 
<A 

50  m 


75 

100 

96  '98  1900  *02  *04  '06  *08  1910  '12  '14  M6  M8,19 

Other  Prices  Go  Up;  Electric  Lighting  Goes  Down 

The  figures  are  for  Chicago. 

During  the  period  of  this  transformation  from  local  plants 
to  large  systems  a few  service  interruptions  on  the  4 ■ high  lines, 9 9 
as  the  transmission  lines  are  sometimes  called,  have  been  re- 
ported. It  is  no  doubt  true  that  at  the  present  time,  at  the  close 
of  the  Great  War  and  during  the  troubled  era  of  reconstruction, 
the  companies  that  direct  Electricity-at-Work  have  not  been  able 


36 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


to  secure  capital  adequate  to  the  building  of  transmission  lines 
of  ample  capacity,  having  sufficient  reserve  to  protect  against  in- 
terruptions. But  the  ultimate  advantage  to  the  consumer  of  be- 
ing a part  of  these  large  interconnected  systems  is  so  great  that 
any  slight  inconvenience  of  the  development  period  may  be 
borne  with  patience. 

Paralleling  of  investments  in  the  shape  of  generating  stations 
and  distributing  systems  simply  adds  to  the  cost  of  the  product 
which  the  community  purchases.  Therefore,  a regulated  monop- 
oly, whether  such  monopoly  is  privately  operated  or  publicly  op- 
erated, is  more  in  accordance  with  scientific  methods  than  regula- 
tion by  competition.  The  economic  tendency  toward  the  combina- 
tion and  centralization  of  electricity  supply  has  been  very  marked 
in  the  United  States  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years. 

Fair  Play  for  the  Burden  Bearer 

The  duties  of  Electricity-at-Work  are  now  tremendously  im- 
portant. In  considering  the  public  relations  of  public-utility 
companies  it  may  be  well  to  remember  that  management  for  the 
people  is  not  necessarily  management  by  the  people.  Obviously 
the  people  cannot,  of  themselves,  perform  the  highly  technical 
task  of  operating  public  utilities.  They  must  employ  experts  for 
this  purpose.  And,  in  this  country  and  at  this  time,  the  best 
way  to  secure  the  best  service  of  the  best  experts — to  give  the 
public  the  best  service  at  the  lowest  rates  consistent  with  the  best 
service — is  to  permit  private  enterprise  a suitable  financial  re- 
ward to  serve  as  an  incentive,  so  that  the  character  of  brains 
so  greatly  needed  for  this  complex  undertaking  shall  be  attracted 
to  the  work. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  is  reported  to  have  said  : ‘ ‘ I do  not  believe 
in  government  ownership  of  anything  which  can  with  propriety 
be  left  in  private  hands. ??  Another  great  man,  a fair-minded 
man,  who  has  given  thought  to  this  subject,  is  Thomas  A.  Edi- 
son. Referring  to  old  contracts  for  five-cent  fares  on  street  rail- 
ways, Mr.  Edison  said  quite  recently:  “The  municipalities  can 
exact  their  pound  of  flesh  if  they  so  desire,  with  the  ultimate 
bankruptcy  of  these  organzations.  But  the  spirit  that  is  now 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


37 

abroad  in  the  world  is  against  this.  We  are  all  trying  to  play 
fair.  If  suffer  we  must,  we  must  all  suffer  alike.  If  prosperity 
comes,  all  should  participate  in  a like  manner. ” 

Municipal  operation  has  the  theoretical  advantage  that  capital 
can  be  borrowed  more  cheaply  and  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
make  a profit.  However,  opposed  to  these,  are  the  practical  ad- 
vantages of  careful  management,  continuity  of  management  and 
private  initiative.  Mr.  E.  N.  Hurley,  who  served  during  the 


A Modern  Electric  Substation  in  a Small  Illinois  Town 


recent  war  as  chairman  of  the  United  States  Shipping  Board, 
when  asked  what  had  impressed  him  most  in  carrying  out  his 
great  task,  said:  “The  efficiency  of  private  ownership  and  op- 
eration, as  compared  with  public  ownership  and  operation.” 
Mr.  Hurley  declared  that  the  whole  proposition  of  government 
ownership  is  fine  in  theory,  but  that  in  practice  the  push  of  in- 
dividual energy  is  missing. 

In  the  larger  plans  being  worked  out  for  the  distribution  of 
cheap  electricity  over  the  country  through  interconnected  net- 


38 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


works,  the  small  local  plant,  including  the  small  municipal  plant, 
seems  to  he  out  of  place.  Large  systems  covering  wide  areas  can 
he  more  economically  operated,  thus  serving  the  people  best  in 
the  long  run.  This  is  a very  important  aspect  of  the  subject, 
and  all  citizens  with  the  good  of  the  country  at  heart  should  have 
knowledge  of  the  importance  of  power  production  and  distribu- 
tion in  the  United  States,  so  that  the  pressure  of  public  opinion 
will  back  up  those  in  authority,  who  should  have  vision  and  im- 
agination in  understanding  the  great  importance  of  Electricity- 
at-Work. 

Really  the  matter  is  simply  one  of  common  honesty  in  giving 
the  electrical  utility  a fair  and  just  return  for  work  faithfully 
performed. 

Today  and  Tomorrow 

Fortunately  the  electrical  requirements  of  Smith,  Jones  and 
Robinson— or  of  the  light-and-power,  street-railway,  industrial, 
mining,  farming  and  transportation  interests  of  a state  or  a part 
of  a state — do  not  exactly  coincide.  Thus  the  centralized  elec- 
tricity-supply system  can  utilize  this  diversity  of  demand  to  bet- 
ter advantage  than  a number  of  power-producing  systems.  It 
has  been  estimated  that  if  the  primary  power  requirements  of 
the -United  States  were  massed  in  a number  of  economic  power 
areas,  each  supplied  with  its  own  interlinked  system  of  generat- 
ing, transmitting  and  distributing  electrical  energy,  the  saving 
in  fuel  alone,  compared  with  present  conditions,  would  be  prob- 
ably not  less  than  $1,000,000,000  a year. 

What  has  been  accomplished  thus  far  in  electrical  develop- 
ment, in  directing  Electricity-at-Work,  has  been  due  to  private 
initiative.  Apparently  the  future  demands  that  will  be  made  on 
this  faithful  servant  are  almost  without  limit.  Electric  power  is 
bound  to  be  used  to  a much  greater  extent  in  agricultural  opera- 
tions, in  metallurgy,  in  operating  the  trains  of  trunk-line  rail- 
roads and  in  the  home.  In  states  like  New  York  and  Illinois 
perhaps  one-third  of  primary  power  requirements  are  supplied 
from  electric  central  stations.  The  time  will  come,  no  doubt, 
when  this  proportion  will  be  nearly  100  per  cent.  Waterpowers 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


:i9 


should  be  developed  to  the  greatest  extent,  but,  according  to  Dr. 
C.  1 . Steinmetz,  the  liope  that  if  coal  should  fail  we  may  use 
the  waterpowers  of  the  country  as  a compensatory  source  of  en- 
ergy is  a dream,  because  if  all  the  possible  waterpowers  of  the 
country  were  developed  the  resulting  energy  would  hardly  supply 
the  present  demand.  Probably  the  possibility  of  the  exhaustion 


-/ 


Electric  Generating  Station  in  Southern  Illinois 

Much  of  the  output  of  this  plant  goes  to  coal  mines. 


of  the  coal  supply  of  the  world  is  so  remote  that  the  study  of 
such  sources  of  power  as  atomic  energy,  solar  radiation,  the  heat 
of  the  earth,  winds  and  tides,  is  not  of  immediate  pressing  im- 
portance. Whatever  the  future  may  hold  for  us  in  the  manner  of 
sources  of  power,  it  is  at  present  certain  that  Electricity-at-Work 
is  a most  economical  and  convenient  servant  for  applying  energy 
to  conditions  of  actual  work. 


40 


ELECTRICITY  THE  BURDEN  BEARER 


The  cost  of  power  is  very  closely  related  to  the  welfare  of  the 
human  race.  It  is  probable  that  the  future  will  see  networks  of 
electrical  distribution  systems  covering  all  the  populous  parts 
of  the  United  States,  with  large  electrical  generating  stations 
feeding  into  this  network  at  points  where  electrical  energy  can  be 
produced  most  cheaply.  These  stations  may  be  driven  by  steam 
engines,  waterwheels  or  oil  or  gas  engines.  Many  of  the  material 
problems  of  modern  society  relating  to  the  conditions  of  life  and 
labor  and  the  bringing  up  of  children  will  be  met  more  satisfac- 
torily when  cheap  electric  power  is  thus  spread  over  the  land, 
throughout  rural  communities,  so  that  it  may  be  “ on  tap  ’ ’ where- 
ever  other  conditions  are  favorable  for  industrial  operations,  thus 
relieving  much  of  the  congestion  in  crowded  centers  of  popula- 
tion. Eleetricity-at-Work  is  looking  ahead  to  his  great  task  of 
today  and  tomorrow — that  of  bringing  cheap  power  and  the  com- 
forts of  modern  civilization  to  every  man’s  door. 


Gaylord  Bros 
Makers 
yracuse,  N Y, 

AT.  JAN.  21,  1908 


I 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3 0112  112081887 


